SEATTLE — Seattle’s Outdoor Movies at Magnuson Park has canceled the rest of its scheduled movie showings for the rest of the summer.
The organization posted on its Facebook page on Monday afternoon that it had to cancel the remaining five events due to security concerns.
"Due to security concerns that have evolved into public safety issues at Magnuson Park, we feel that it is in the best interest of our attendees, staff, sponsors, partners and fans that we no longer continue these events in 2017. We would like to thank all of our fans, sponsors and partners who have supported and enjoyed these events over the last six years," it said in the post.
Epic Events runs the movie series. Its president, Doug Borneman, told KIRO 7 by phone that there were numerous incidents on Thursday, July 20th, and that thefts and violence occurred.
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Borneman said while they do have their own security, they need to come up with a new safety plan, whether that’s a big Seattle police presence and more lighting at the park, or moving to a different park.
But he said creating that plan takes time and they had to take action after what happened at the Thursday screening of Hidden Figures.
“I just remember looking to my right and there were, like, four cops lined up over there,” Alina Hagstrom said.
She attended the Hidden Figures screening but did not realized crime had occurred until KIRO 7 informed her.
“Whoa, yeah, that’s kind of scary,” she said.
KIRO 7 discovered one man posted on Facebook that his 13-year-old son called him on Thursday, saying, “Dad, I was mugged at Magnuson Park at the movies,” and went on to say that a group of teens made him “take off his Air Jordans and when he didn’t do it quickly enough, one of the teens sucker punched” him.
“I never thought that that would be an issue,” Marta Levkova said while on a walk with her friend Gabrielle Phillips. “I thought it was such a fun idea and all our friends were so excited to go to these things.”
Online records show Seattle police took a robbery report that night, but the report did not provide any details.
By phone, Borneman said, “We want these events to be safe and fun and family friendly and we felt at this point with the situation it seemed like we need a bigger plan for the future if we're going to continue to do events in that park."
Gerardo Pena and his wife were thinking of taking their 5-year-old and 3-year-old to the Willy Wonka movie this coming Thursday until KIRO 7 informed them that all remaining movies this summer were canceled.
“The fact that kids were targeted, that anyone was targeted, is not good… kids especially,” he said.
However, he said, he and his wife will not be deterred from taking their kids to the park.
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